10.24.02
Posted in Blogging, Culture and Society at 10:05 pm by Lisa Spangenberg
Though you may neither know nor care, I’ve two sorts of identities. I’m an academic, with an interest in things Celtic and medieval. I even blog about them here. But I’m also a technologist, with an professional interest in multimedia and the uses of digital technology for instruction and scholarship. More often than you might think, these interests (obsessions?) collide.
For instance, I discovered, via Dave Winer’s post that there’s an Irish course being offered on blogging, or “Essential Web Journaling” using Radio. It’s a pretty solid looking syllabus too. The company offering the class, Xi:Blue, also offers an Irish technology blog, that describes itself as “a clearing house for the latest digital video and media news as seen from an Apple, and an Irish, perspective.”
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10.13.02
Posted in Pedagogy and Scholarship at 10:21 pm by Lisa Spangenberg
Well, technically, I’m a humble Teaching Fellow (that’s a TA to you) so I don’t have to prepare lectures. I simply hold office hours, attend lecture, and prod/entice/coerce students into thinking, talking, and writing about the literature they’re reading in a fifty minute once a week discussion section.
I requested this class when I decided to TA; it’s The Norton Anthology Vol. I or English literature from 800 to 1660, Beowulf to Milton.
I’d hoped to use one of the digital technology friendly rooms, but am not, alas in one, so I”m not using technology much in the discussion itself. I do give them URLS, or page references via a click path. The division uses WebCT to host undergraduate web sites for classes. I used to support this particular system, so I’m intimately familiar with it, and am less than fond of it, though the programmer and administrator for the system is a miracle worker. I’d love to use some of the tools that he would write, if he had time. The modifications he’s made to improve the suite have been so much better than the off the shelf options. But he’s not yet been able to write quite the kind of system I crave.
Instead, I’ve set up a BloggerPro weblog here. I’m using Apple’s OS X iCal for my student appointments. I’m also posting web resources on the WebCT site, and using the built in Calendar tool for general class Calendar items, like reading assignments and such that aren’t specific to my sections.
I’m using QuickTime to annotate a few audio recordings of Middle English and Old English, so students can see and hear what they sound like. You can find the links on the blog. That’s been successful. I’m also using images to show students what manuscripts are like, among other things. But I’ve got even more interest now, than I had already, in creating a decent CMS for instructional use.
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